Accessibility Links

‘I always believe, no matter how long the wait, the goal will come’

Rory Smith

October 6 2012, 1:01am, The Times

Falcao was named after the Brazil midfielder of the 70s and 80sClive Rose/Getty Images

Tomorrow night, Spain will stand transfixed. In the vast bowl of the Nou Camp, football’s two superpowers will stare each other down once more. Barcelona against Real Madrid: two eternal enemies, two competing ideologies, locked in their immortal combat.

On the bench, José Mourinho against Tito Vilanova, the preening charisma against the guardian of the sacred flame; on the pitch, Cristiano Ronaldo, swagger and style, against Lionel Messi and his impish sorcery. This is the game that has everything. Well, almost everything.

This year, El Clásico does not have the man widely considered the best forward in La Liga. It does not have the player voted the best attacker in the world by the readers of Marca, ahead of Messi and Ronaldo. It does not…